


A second chance

by azziria



Series: A second chance [1]
Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 16:59:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3944521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azziria/pseuds/azziria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James Norrington’s second courtship of Elizabeth Swann was a measured affair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A second chance

**Author's Note:**

> First posted on LJ in 2004 in response to a challenge request for a fic that had "a happy ending (definition of "happy" and "ending" are, as always, up to the author) and general cheerfulness throughout". AU after COTBP.
> 
> I don't really do happy fic (or het, for that matter!), so in the end I couldn't actually avoid a death without straying too far from canon, although it takes place long before the fic and is dealt with as happily as I could manage.

James Norrington’s second courtship of Elizabeth Swann was a measured affair.

Returning to Port Royal after a 10-year absence, Admiral Norrington found little changed. The streets were still as crowded and the inns as insalubrious as ever, and even the most concerted efforts of the new governor had failed to convince certain ladies of the night that their services were no longer required. And the people of quality were as adept as always at turning a blind eye to the more colourful aspects of the town they called home.

One thing, however, had changed.

Elizabeth Turner, two years widowed, had at last put off her mourning and taken up the reins of her life once more.

***

It took a week for the Admiral, so brave in battle, so courageous in a crisis, to pluck up the courage to call on the Widow Turner.

Awaiting her in her parlour, his nerve nearly deserted him. But for a man of his rank and station to snub a lady was unthinkable. So duty bid him remain, and a long-denied half-hope firmed his resolve and reined in his overwhelming desire to bolt.

When she came to him, clad in a plain gown and with her hair dressed simply as became a widow, he saw in one moment that she was still beautiful, still graceful, still slender. A woman grown; wife, mother, widow; and yet still a thing of exquisite beauty. 

With the smile she gave him as she welcomed an old friend he lost his heart once more, the heart so carefully hidden away and protected from harm over so many years, the heart that, once broken, had never been trusted to another.

Set adrift by emotion, he was awkward with her at first, social graces drummed into him from infancy holding him afloat - just - in the uncharted waters of his reawakened feelings. They talked of inconsequential things, of the weather, the fate of mutual acquaintances. When she spoke of her children he caught a glimpse of the inward-looking secretive joy only women who are mothers have, and with a frisson of jealousy he found he loved her the more for it.

It seemed to him that she was still the Elizabeth he had held in his memory, still his Elizabeth, but grown more steadfast and strong with the passage of years and the weathering of storms and sorrows. This Elizabeth had a dignity and inner calm the younger woman had lacked, but the spark was still there, the life and vivacity she had always had. She was still the Elizabeth he had fallen in love with so many years before, feisty and fearless, but even more, now - the green girl of his memories truly grown into the fine woman he had once thought her. 

Eventually, as both knew they must, their talk turned to the subject he most dreaded. The Admiral offered his condolences, as social propriety demanded; she accepted them gracefully. The Admiral thought to move on then, to other, less sensitive topics, but the widow spoke on.

She told him how her husband had been a good man, who had struggled at first with the inequalities of their respective social status, but who had overcome all obstacles with his good nature and willingness to learn, for her sake. She told him how he had loved her, cherished her, set her above all others all the days of their marriage. How he had been a devoted husband and father, working hard so that his family should never be ashamed of his humble beginnings. With a smile and a sudden private and faraway gleam in her eyes she told him how, despite his shining respectability, William Turner the pirate had nevertheless still remained strong within him.

The Admiral felt a stab of pain through his newly-awakened heart, and turned away from her to hide his feelings.

But the widow saw, and found in herself a sudden and surprising need to protect the Admiral from hurt.

"We were married for 8 years, James. Eight good years. He lived happily and he died a happy man. So no, I’ll not grieve for him, I’ll rejoice for what we had. Far more than many people ever have." But she had the decency to colour prettily, remembering what she had denied the Admiral when she followed her heart to Will Turner’s side.

The Admiral saw her blush, and a raw and yet exhilarating hope leapt unlooked-for in his breast.

***

If anyone noted that the Admiral’s morning constitutional increasingly took him past the Widow Turner’s door, and that more often than not a maid would come running out to call him in for coffee or a glass of some other refreshment, well, what could be more natural than that a man of the Admiral’s station should call on the daughter of an old friend and former Governor?

And if, from time to time, the Admiral and the Widow were seen walking together in the public gardens, her hand on his arm, her voice raised in a peal of happy laughter at something he had said, well, no gentleman worth his salt would allow a woman to walk alone where she might be molested by the common riff-raff. And the Admiral was certainly a gentleman.

And if at Mrs Trelawney’s ball the Widow Turner should stand up with the Admiral for more dances than was quite proper for a woman of her age and status, well, Elizabeth Turner had always been a bit headstrong, and the Admiral was surely only doing his duty in ensuring that she stepped out with a respectable dancing partner.

And if the Admiral, handing the beautiful young widow from her carriage in the moonlight after the ball, should lose himself so far as to sweep her into his arms and kiss her, who other than the servants (who knew better than to talk) was to see that she answered his kiss with a heat and passion unbecoming of a lady?

However, few were surprised when the Admiral announced his engagement to Elizabeth Turner.

On a fine day in February, Admiral James Norrington married the widow Elizabeth Turner in a small ceremony in Port Royal, Jamaica, and was finally able to admit himself the happiest man on earth.


End file.
